“Value chains must be organized fairly by taking into account environmental justice.”
Among the four researchers from the University of Bern who were awarded one of the competitive ERC starting grants in 2020 was Christoph Oberlack, Head of CDE’s “Sustainability Governance” research cluster. His COMPASS project will spearhead new research directions in sustainability science.
Unprecedented concentration in agri-food value chains is worsening global inequality. Waves of land grabbing threaten the livelihoods of millions. Reshaping the impacts of agricultural investments, land use, and trade on people’s well-being is an urgent challenge.
To counter this effect, several strategies have been developed, such as certification systems like Fairtrade, inclusive businesses, or solidarity-based economic initiatives. “However, empirical studies show that even these three strategies do not generally increase the affected population’s well-being”, says CDE researcher Christoph Oberlack. Moreover, these are primarily strategies from private-sector organizations, with limited direct involvement of state actors.
Starting from the assumption that environmental justice is necessary for human well-being, Christoph Oberlack and his team will systematically investigate and compare the three strategies with regard to their instruments, their impact on human well-being, and the institutional anchoring of environmental justice.
The project “COMPASS” aims at developing, based on the cocoa and coffee sectors of Peru and Switzerland, a compass which shows how value chains can be organized fairly while taking into account environmental justice.
“It also promotes a better understanding of how public policies, property rights and the structures of value chains influence these dynamics,” says Christoph Oberlack. In his project, team members in Peru will, among other things, use interviews with coffee and cocoa farmers to determine the impact of the three strategies on their well-being.
The European Research Council (ERC) was set up by the European Union in 2007 and is the first pan-European funding agency for cutting-edge basic research. Its mission and aim are to promote investigator-driven research by Europe’s best researchers. The Starting Grants are designed to support Europe’s most talented young researchers in building their own teams and conducting ground-breaking research across all disciplines.
“Sustainability is the decisive issue of the future – and CDE supplies policy-ready knowledge for it.”
Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern